Hall of Worship, Atami Sacred Grounds

July 1, 2014

Congratulations everyone on the Grand Ancestor Service.

With deep reverence for God, I say that He, the Eternal God, is the true Parent for us and for all ancestors.

This Eternal God is alive and breathing ceaselessly within each one of us, all ancestors and all nature.

Meishu-Sama was able to firmly believe in this living God within himself, the true Parent within him. That is why I call him a Messiah, a true child of God.

You must know: it is this Meishu-Sama who shines gloriously at the very center of your consciousness.

On this day of the Grand Ancestor Service, let us, firstly, acknowledge that our ancestors are alive within us at this very moment. And let us also express our gratitude to God who is nurturing us, always, so that we will grow into ones who willingly receive the eternal life of God and be newly born as His children.

I understand that you members of Izunome are working hard in order to “be born anew as a child of God and to become a pioneer of salvation.” I am grateful for your effort.

This past May, I visited the Chubu region of Japan and met many of you there. I was so happy to see how devoted you were to the divine work of Meishu-Sama.

Not only did you put as much effort as possible into making the whole event a great success, but also you were working on an entirely new practice of Meishu-Sama by voicing out in your heart, in whatever you were doing, “Together, let us return to heaven existing within us as ones who are connected to Meishu-Sama.”

I was deeply touched to know these efforts of yours. At the same time, I thought we should never forget to attribute all of our successes and accomplishments to God, as He is the only One who is to be praised and be given credit to.

Now, all of us, without exception, wish to have good health, good relationships with family and friends and a successful career or a content life. We have been thinking that these are the essentials in order to have a happy life and we have been seeking for them. I have been, too. I still am.

Meishu-Sama knew that humans, by nature, are the creatures that seek happiness, and he left us with many teachings regarding this.

In particular, he emphasized that one cannot become happy unless he or she makes others happy.

The reason why he preached the importance of altruism like this is because he wanted us to realize that an individual cannot live on his or her own and is always dependent on others. But more importantly, Meishu-Sama wanted us to know that in fact, it is God who really wishes for the happiness of others. Frankly speaking, we human beings want to make others happy only if we personally like them and it is really difficult for us to express altruism to those we dislike.

But God’s love is unlimited and universal. Every single second, He is wishing for the happiness of all human beings, of us.

We have believed in God and had faith so that our wishes can be fulfilled by the power of God.

And to some extent, we have been trying to do good deeds in order to express our faith and attain happiness.

But we have to stop for a moment and think carefully.

Did God prepare this act of faith so that we attain happiness in this life? Is this the only reason?

I am sure that this is one of the reasons. But I believe there is another, crucial one that we should never forget, and we can find it in the teachings of Meishu-Sama.

Meishu-Sama wrote, “Sometimes I feel that the ultimate purpose of having faith is so that we can reach our full potential and be a perfect human being.” In short, Meishu-Sama taught us that through faith, we should aim to become “a complete human being.”

When we use these words such as “reaching our full potential” or “a complete human being,” what we should never forget is what these words mean for God – what “complete” means for God.

No matter how hard we try to become a better person and improve ourselves, as long as we forget that God is behind everything that happens, we can never become “a complete human being.”

It was God who created each one of our consciousnesses, this sense of “I.” We believe that we feel on our own, think on our own and act on our own, but in fact it is God who is behind all of what we feel, think and act.

That is why whatever we do in our life, God is always taking the responsibility and is ready to forgive all of our deeds.

First and foremost, we have to acknowledge this.

We have to acknowledge that we have been using our consciousnesses in the way that we want and have been ignoring the fact that God is its owner and is in control of it. We have to acknowledge that we have been focusing on passing judgment on ourselves and others and have been trying to believe that we belong to the correct side and that we are free from sin.

If you can acknowledge these attitudes, you are then ready to receive the greatest blessing God has prepared for you – His forgiveness. Acknowledge that you have been ignoring God, receive His forgiveness with all your heart and surrender your sense of self, the whole of yourself into the hands of God in the name of Meishu-Sama. If you can do this, no matter what you have done in your life, I am certain that God will say to you, “I made you do what you did. All responsibilities belong to me. And so, you are already forgiven.”

And what is more, if you can recall that you were a divine being when you were in heaven originally and if you can return to that heaven and become one with that being, you, with God’s permission, will be able to be born anew as a child of God. This, I tell you, is how God deems you as “a complete human being.”

It was Meishu-Sama who achieved this and became “a complete human being” in the eyes of God.

After suffering from a stroke in April 1954, Meishu-Sama realized that the life he had was not that which he inherited from his physical parents. Rather he was convinced that his life was God’s and eternal.

With this conviction, Meishu-sama humbly received the life of God within him, was born anew as a child of God and became “a complete human being.”

And we should never forget this: Meishu-Sama suffered from illness for us. He was born anew for us. Without his suffering, we would never be able to realize our true mission of becoming God’s true child.

That is why we must recognize Meishu-Sama as our model and acknowledge him as a Messiah.

We have mistakenly assumed that our life is limited, that it will end when we die.

Not only that, we have been ignorant and felt like we were the owner of our life, and we never imagined that God Himself is truly alive within us.

We do not have to be stubborn and deny this ignorance of ours. If we are not ignorant and sinful, what is the point of God preparing His forgiveness for us? So repent. Repent and receive His forgiveness.

And let us all say to ourselves, “Meishu-Sama was born anew for me, for one who needs to receive God’s forgiveness,” and let us communicate to God that you have received His forgiveness and accept Meishu-Sama with all your heart.

If you do this, I am sure that God will welcome you into His glorious heaven as one who is connected to Messiah Meishu-Sama. And He will grant you His eternal life and have you newly born as His true child.

We were in a long sleep of knowing only the life of our physical body, the limited life. But being connected to Meishu-sama, we are now able to know the eternal life, the true salvation, and I offer my most sincere gratitude to God for this blessing.

To close, I pray that the brilliance of eternal life that is one with the holy name of Messiah be shared among all humanity, all ancestors and all things in heaven and earth.

Thank you very much.